Liberton Christian School
2009 Annual Report
Chairman’s Report
The 2009 calendar year has been an excellent year for Liberton Christian School. The school is very well served by an enthusiastic and committed staff who work hard to deliver high quality educational programmes framed in the Christian character of the school.
Liberton has been operating with a full roll for a number of years and has been seeking to get an increase in the roll cap. We were delighted to learn in May that the application submitted in 2008 was approved, lifting the maximum roll from 62 to 75 students. Our Charter states,
The school community believes that the optimum size for the school is four classrooms with a roll cap of approximately 100 pupils. Growth to this size forms the heart of the Board’s strategic view for the development and use of school facilities.
The Board of Trustees is therefore excited that the School can move forward towards that goal. With the increase in roll, the school is moving to having a fourth classroom from 2010 onwards which is expected to improved the delivery of education programmes across all age groups, but especially for new entrants and years 7 and 8.
For the past two years, the Board has had a focus on improving the facilities for our year 7 and 8 students. These aim has been to make the facilities and education programme for these students of sufficient standard that parents might consider bringing their children to Liberton for their two intermediate years. This year, the School’s computer network and ICT equipment have undergone a significant upgrade, and new playground equipment aimed at the senior end of the School is ready to be installed. Construction commenced at the end of term four and should be complete when the School opens in 2010. This is the culmination of two years of planning and fundraising and will be a wonderful resource for years to come.
The staff and Board of Trustees have continued working through the implementation of the 2007 Revised New Zealand Curriculum. The School presented the progress to date and discussed the Integrated Inquiry approach at a very well attended parent forum in September. Parents were invited to share what they would like our curriculum to look like and what topics they would like taught. The feedback from parents was summarised and included into the revised curriculum.
ICT has continued to be a major focus in the school in 2009, both in facilities and professional development. Liberton is in the second year of a three-year ICT cluster with a number of other Dunedin schools. The School has replaced its ageing server this year as part of the ICT hardware plan. This has transformed the computer network and greatly enhancing the ability to deliver programmes using ICT. An additional six computers have also been added to classrooms this year. The upgrades to the School’s ICT system have been made possible by a generous grant from the Synod of Otago and Southland of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The School finished 2009 in very good heart. The staff have functioned as a tight-knit and enthusiastic team striving to delivery high quality educational programmes in a Christian context. The relationships within the school community were strong and there was good community spirit. Looking back over the year, student achievement levels were high, all of the major goals in the School’s Annual Plan were met, and the Board of Trustees has worked well as an effective governance team. The School looks forward to 2010 as beginning a new chapter in its life with four classrooms and an increased roll.
Neville Jopson
Principal’s Report
We are thankful to the Lord for sustaining and blessing Liberton Christian School for another year. It is my pleasure to share the highlights and achievements of our school over 2009.
2009 Staff and Roll
The teaching staff was unchanged for 2009, with Mrs Chantal Smith teaching our year 6–8 class, Mr Alan Robertson teaching our year 3–5 class and Miss Hermione Barnett teaching the junior class with Mrs Fiona Sizemore. Mrs Kyra Jones continued to teach wonderful visual art lessons on Wednesdays. We were all very well supported by Mrs Karen Boyes in the office and Mrs Sheila Mannix as teacher aide.
We had two new families join us at the beginning of the year and a starting roll of 57 with new entrants expected soon after. An afternoon tea was held to help welcome our new students and families into our community.
Christian Character
We began implementing the Cornerstone Values as part of our revised curriculum Values policy. The values explored over the year were: responsibility, kindness, honesty and truthfulness and consideration. The teachers helped the children unpack the value and consider what it looks like in practical terms, as well as looking for opportunities to support them in taking up personal and collective responses to it. Student assemblies (Monday mornings) focused on stories from the Bible and other sources that demonstrate the value.
Our World Vision 40 Hour Famine sleepover and fundraising effort was again very well supported with the students raising over $2900. We were blessed to receive a World Vision intermediate scholarship and gold award for the second year running.
We continued to enjoy opportunities to join with Pine Hill School students and teachers at special services at St Mark’s Church to celebrate Easter, Pentecost and Christmas.
Alan Robertson, Hermione Barnett and board of trustees member David Berg all attended the New Zealand Association for Christian Schools’ conference in Rotorua. The conferences are always very well organised and provide our teachers with fellowship and professional development alongside Christian school teachers from all over New Zealand.
Curriculum
The first education outside the classroom event was a trip for the whole school to Warrington for Beach Education. The children enjoyed the experience and we were blessed with a sunny day so those who were brave enough were even able to swim for a short time!
In April we were blessed with a grant of $1300 from the Ministry of Health’s ‘Healthy Eating – Healthy Action’ Nutrition Fund to develop an edible garden at our school. Also, we received the news that the Community Trust of Otago granted us $12,500 towards our senior playground project, another awesome blessing to the school.
The senior class ski camp during term three was fantastic! The students and adults all had a great week of skiing and fellowship. Ski conditions were excellent and all the students made great progress. The experience of staying in a hut on the mountain was very special and meant the group could just walk out the door each morning and in ten minutes were ready to hit the slopes.
It was a real pleasure to have our own school band, Mission On, during 2009. Their debut performance at the Cornerstone Church’s Japanese service was very well received. The band was under the guidance of Miss Barnett and developed significantly over the year; being our first school band and writing and performing their own songs.
Our students once again gave us very positive feedback after the Kool Kids Care Show. Elgrego and his assistant Sue amazed us with their magical illusions and tricks which help share a positive anti-bullying message about how to be a good friend, and it was fabulous to have Pine Hill and Amana Christian Schools join us. We had 138 children plus extra adults/teachers packed into our hall for the show.
During September the teaching staff hosted a curriculum consultation meeting at the school. The evening began with BYO family takeaways followed by a movie and games for the children while parents were invited to contribute to the content of our future Curriculum Delivery Plan in the staff room. The teachers presented information on the development of our revised curriculum so far, and consulted with the community on the redevelopment of the Learning Areas. We also took the opportunity to explain the Inquiry model of teaching and learning that is being increasingly used in our classrooms. The evening was very well attended.
Our 2009 school production Operation Christ Child was a truly wonderful event. What an abundance of talent the Lord has graciously blessed our students with! It is always a joy to see the development of individual students through the process of the production and the growing enthusiasm each year of the students coming through.
Sports
Sports activities were prominent during 2009. We had miniball, netball, rippa rugby and soccer teams competing for the school.
Swimming lessons took place for all our students at Moana Pool during terms two and three. We now get bus transport to and from the pool and the students love the additional free time they get in the wave pool each week.
We had nine year 5–8 students compete in the Otago Cross Country in September. The competition was tough and the races were very fast. Congratulations to Aria Park who was our best-placed participant coming in 12th in the year 6 girls’ race.
At the beginning of term four we held our own athletics sports day at the Caledonian Grounds. Our students really enjoyed the opportunity to use the running track and other athletics equipment. We plan to make this an annual event alongside more athletics development within our school programme. Following on from our own athletics day we selected sixteen students to represent our school at the north zone athletics competition. Of these, five qualified to compete at the Otago Athletics Championships in November. Congratulations to Heidi Aarsen who came third in the junior 800m race.
Student Leadership
Our 2009 year eight students took up their leadership role within the school keenly. They planned and organised successful theme days each term and undertook their own baking fundraiser to help get the whole group to the Halogen Foundation Young Leaders’ Day.
The Halogen Foundation Young Leaders’ Conference held in the Regent Theatre was a superb event for our seven year eight students in May. The conference organises inspirational and dynamic presenters who really speak into the hearts and minds of the young people present. Rob Harley and Nick Tuitasi were two of our students’ favourite presenters on the day.
Deena Parr was our World Vision Scholarship recipient this year. Deena was chosen by teachers and students as our worthy representative as she made a significant contribution to our school as a senior student and leader, participating actively in leadership opportunities, supporting younger students, organising games and public occasions. Deena joined twenty-nine other intermediate students in Auckland for a week of fun and leadership training in the September/October holiday break.
During the last week of term four we held our special graduation assembly. This is always a mixed-emotions affair as we farewell our year eight students who are ready for their next step into high school. They presented moving farewell speeches and have all served the School well as student leaders. We pray the Lord will bless and keep them in their next stage of schooling.
Professional Development
This was our second year in the Ministry of Education Information Communication Technology (ICT) professional development contract and as a school we have seen very positive development of our resources and use of ICT. Class teachers were involved through workshops, action research projects and cluster meetings to strengthen teacher effectiveness in using and delivering e-learning (learning that is supported or facilitated by ICT) to students.
As we look forward to 2010 it is with hope and anticipation! The Board of Trustees has made a bold decision to step out in faith and commit the school to having a fourth classroom to encourage growth into our increased roll cap of seventy-five. Please commit this to prayer; we pray that more parents would see the imperative of an education that seeks to honour God as the creator and sustainer of all things, and that Liberton would grow in numbers.
I would like to sincerely thank our dedicated Board of Trustees, staff, parents and wider community for the wonderful support given faithfully to our school, students and myself over this year. Thank you especially to all those who uphold the school in prayer.
At Liberton Christian School we can reflect on another year where the Lord has graciously continued to provide for us and who continues to sustain the school in everyway. “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1 v 31).
Serving Him together.
Fiona Sizemore
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